VILLAGERS are warning potential developers not to eye-up the countryside around their community for new homes.

Residents in Sedgefield fear their village is under siege, with a series of plans submitted to council officers.

Hundreds of houses have already been built - and there are plans for a wind farm, secure mental health unit and a proposed holiday park nearby.

Planners at Sedgefield Borough Council are also drafting a Local Development Framework expected to identify farmland around the village as potential housing sites.

The framework is a borough-wide blueprint for development which maps out potential uses for land.

Although the document is routine and planners have told residents there are no applications for housing, many fear it is only a matter of time.

Sedgefield Residents' Forum has created a petition against new houses on the edge of the village.

The group aims to protect a green corridor to the east of the village and behind Beacon Lane.

Members hope the petition will send a clear message to builders that they will object to plans that are drawn up.

Chairman Julia Bowles said: "There are green fields all around our village that have been identified for future housing since the Seventies without plans going in, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't fight it now.

"We just feel there is so much development in the village we are being bombarded.

"It is being saturated with houses and other developments, which many people were against.

"We want to tell planners and potential developers that enough is enough, we want to protect the character of our village."

Volunteers plan to take the petition around houses in the village and hope to make it available to sign in public places.

Mrs Bowles asked residents to watch village notice boards for details or to attend Residents' Forum meetings, usually held in Sedgefield Parish Hall on the fourth Monday of the month, at 7pm.

The next meeting will be on September 10.